Spiritual Awareness

Final Essay for Spiritual Awareness Course

By: Rev. Cynthia Ewing

When I started this course, I was not expecting a lot from it. I was already in the middle of taking the Spirit-Quest Class and thought that the Awareness class would be a lot like the other class. As I finished the class I found myself taking away more pearls of knowledge.

The first pearl I took from this class was that mankind is definitely awakening from its slumber. I know I have seen this before, but did not take as large a notice to it in the past. I see my family for one start to awaken. My sister, who I would not expect to be using metaphysical tools, has been using them on her children to help them in their waking and sleeping hours. I think she is just starting to understand what tools she is truly using.

The next pearl is not new to me either. Our thoughts are very powerful. Because we are in this murky third dimension we do not believe that our thoughts play a large role in shaping our lives. We believe that if we do what is right and expected of us that everything will go well. Our thoughts bring in the opportunities or the difficulties we ask for. If we think in a negative manner and speak in one, we bring negative events into our lives. It is therefore important for everyone to think in a positive manner. The whole key is spinning the negative into the positive. One must pay attention to ones thoughts.

Keeping our energy our own is another important pearl. I have had many experiences in my life where I have given away my own energy in a relationship without realizing what I was doing. Rev. King describes it so well when she talks about starting a new relationship. You feel like you are flying high. Then one day you realize that either you or the other person is trying to control the other. The person is put down or made to feel inferior. They are feeding off of the other's energy. This can also happen in other types of relationships. In a parent-child relationship, my Mother was constantly trying to take my energy. She felt inadequate and was willing to take it out on me. In this course I was able to see our relationship a little differently. There are more than a couple views in a relationship.

Rev. King also spoke of tapping into the universal energy and using it to help our environment. I drove around at lunch time one day after reading the lesson and marveled at the beauty that was all around. I also noticed shadows and nuances that brought to my attention hidden things. We can use the universal energy to help our planet and therefore help ourselves if we just open ourselves up to a power larger than ourselves. If we close ourselves off to this source it just stands to separate us even more from the Light and in the process making us feel very alone.

I feel privileged to have been able to take this course. I found the insights to be very helpful to my mission. They have helped me to understand my relationship with my mother on a different level. They have also given me some pearls of wisdom that I can pass on to others who seek my counsel and advice. I have read the Celestine Prophecy many years ago and did not get this much information out of the book itself. I guess I was not ready at that time. Thank you for the experience.

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The Universal Life Church is a comprehensive online seminary where we have classes in Christianity, Wicca, Paganism, two courses in Metaphysics and much more. I have been a proud member of the ULC for many years and the Seminary since its inception.

The Universal Life Church offers handfasting ceremonies, funeral ceremonies and free minister training.

As a long time member of ULC, Rev. Long created the seminary site to help train our ministers. We also have a huge selection of Universal Life Church  minister supplies. Since being ordained with the Universal Life Church for so many years and it's Seminary since the beginning, I've watch the huge change and growth that has continued to happen.

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Metaphysical Healing

Metaphysical Healing Final Essay

By Rev. Patricia Buben

I really enjoyed the course in Metaphysical Healing and came out with much more knowledge about the Chakra system, how the chakras align to the glands, the layers of the aura and the function of the aura.

It is interesting how similar metaphysical healing is to Reiki. The big difference is that there are attunement processes in Reiki that help to balance, align and open the chakras. Both methods align to the Universal Energy Field and can be bring Universal Energy into the body systems to cleanse and heal the body. The aura and energy anatomy are actually the blueprint for the body. Illnesses and imbalances show up in the energy field first, before they affect the body through disease. In this way, disturbances can be felt by the healer while scanning the auric field and can be remedied by bringing in Universal Energy even before the physical body is affected.

Hands-on healing has been used for many centuries by spiritual healers inside and outside of religion. It is referenced in the Bible and is the most ancient of healing techniques. It seems to be making a comeback in the forms of Therapeutic touch, Polarity therapy and Reiki.

The metaphysical healer has many tools in helping a client heal. Positive affirmations, visualization and meditation techniques help to prepare a client for healing and puts them into a higher energy state which can help to make the hands-on healing session more effective. Healing is strongly connected to spirituality as it is believed that Universal Energy Field is directly from God.

There is also the concept of absent or distance healing where the healer uses a representation of the client (can be a picture) and performs the healing service without the client being in the room.

As a Reiki practitioner, there are many techniques I can add from this course. I like the idea of using affirmations, visualizations and meditation to the practice of Reiki to help the client get into the right frame of mind for healing and also to use them on an ongoing basis to help the client relax when under stress.

In summary, this class was very well written, presented much detailed information about the body systems and integrated everything very well. Hands-on healing has become very popular over the last 10-15 years and I think it is important for people in the healing professions and ministers to understand how it works so that they can advise their parishioners as to the value of it as well as include healing services into the churches.

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The  ULC, run by Rev. Long, has created a chaplaincy program to help train our ministers. We also have a huge catalog of Universal Life Church materials.  I've been ordained with Seminary since the beginning and have loved watching the continual growth of the seminary.

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Spirit Quest

Spirit Quest at ULC Seminary

After working through my first lesson, I looked forward every week to the Spirit Quest discourse waiting in my email box. I had no idea what to expect and I was always enthralled by whatever the latest installment would be. I had been taught how to ground myself in a number of different ways but none of them worked like the one in the lesson. I had never known that I could ground a room, a building, an area or even body parts! I love that and I use it almost everyday and I am working on making that every day. And yes I can ground with my eyes open too!

Ahh the roses and golden suns. I love them too. The more I practice creating and destroying the more beautiful each rose becomes. I can see the veins, the deep red color and even the drops of dew from time to time. Once I swear that I could even smell it!  Sometimes remembering to do the protection rose is not as easy as I thought it would be but I am getting better at it. I just have to be and stay present then I can do it. The first time that I actually felt like I had blown up a rose was odd but I like doing that now. The golden sun makes me feel warm and soft. Now I don’t really have to anything but just think of the golden sun and it is there for me.

I did get stuck on the mock ups though and I think those are very important for me. I am going back over that part to try to learn it better. It is odd that sometimes we “checkout” in areas of our lives that we need that most. I think this part was harder than I had expected and actually my life was getting a little bit crazy then. But things are better now so I can do some more work on it.

A lot of the rest of the lessons I had a bit of knowledge on but I still learned plenty. I copied and read ever article that was sent along with the weekly lessons. These I liked a lot. I am planning on taking more courses on line in the very near future because for me this one was so good.

Thank you for putting this together so we can learn.

Rev. Jen Dearborn

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The Universal Life Church is a comprehensive online seminary where we have classes in Christianity, Wicca, Paganism, two courses in Metaphysics and much more.

Ordination with the Universal Life Church, is free,  and lasts for life, so use the Free Online Ordination, button.

The  ULC, run by Rev. Long, has created a chaplaincy program to help train our ministers. We also have a huge catalog of Universal Life Church materials.  I've been ordained with the Universal Life Church for many years and it's Seminary since the beginning and have loved watching the continual growth of the seminary.

Try our new free toolbar at: ULC Toolbar

Spiritual Awareness

Spiritual Awareness   As a Reiki III Master I have practice positive healing energies on both myself and others for many year but the Spiritual awareness class had made me aware of other channels of energy as well and how to work with them.  Often what appeared at first to be heath issues has turned out to be negative energies draining the body that are being sent by others.  Thus now I cleanse the negative energies before I even start to use healing energies, often this alone restores health to the body. When I find this the case then I teach the person to do this for themselves for if we have enemies they continue sending us these negative energies as long as they have them their selves and want to blame others for it.  Using the system taught in this class I have coupled it with a positive energy of love to aid the negative person to gain healing too if they so choose.  I find seldom does the negative energy stop by just telling it to stop thus I send back what they have received and triple it if necessary so they feel the pain the are sending but then I place a crown of thorns around that individual where the thick energy is trapped from being sent out again but then I go a step forward and send an energy of white light and love through the thorns as love energy is light and can move easily and the negative is a heavy, thick energy and cannot pass through the thorns.  Thus for a while the person sending out this negative energy is weakening themselves to the point they must stop sending it out, for it only rebounds and then in the weakened stage they become still and can finally feel the strength of the love energy I am sending to them and thus not only is the person I am working with finds healing the other person does too if they are willing to let go of their anger and do so.  Often these are not bad, mean people but folks who feel trapped in life and cannot find a way out and  thus they find others to blame and send out this pain to them as a sub conscious call for help themselves. This new Spiritual Awareness has served me well and hopefully will do so for the many I am called on to help, as well.  Rev. Linda Francis ********************** Ordination with the Universal Life Church, is free,  and lasts for life, so use the Free Online Ordination, button. The  ULC, run by Rev. Long, has created a chaplaincy program to help train our ministers. We also have a huge catalog of Universal Life Church materials.  I've been ordained with the Universal Life Church for many years and it's Seminary since the beginning and have loved watching the continual growth of the seminary. Try our new free toolbar at: ULC Toolbar

Metaphysical Healing

Metaphysical Healing

             I am glad to be at the ending of a new beginning, by taking this course.  It has been a wonderful learning journey.  What I most enjoyed about taking this course were the multiple references made to traditional African healing modalities.  I felt it reconnected me back to a portion of myself.  I felt this was the richest portion of the course because it illustrates the long line of ancestral healers.  Learning about how to heal myself, has proven to be a wonderfully useful tool.  On several occasions during this course I have tested the effectiveness of the tools I was learning.  I was not disappointed.

 From an early age, I've felt the gift of being able to heal myself, but I now have more confidence than ever in my ability to heal others.  I also learned about the different roles of traditional healers and how they rebuild relationships within physical and spiritual communities. I also learned how they utilize herbs, seawater and other tools for healing.  I very much enjoyed learning about the different body systems, and how they are connected to the meridians and chakra systems.  This vast and sometimes complicated knowledge was broken down into simple understandable components that enriched my knowledge of the body.  

Before going into a healing session it is important that one has been thoroughly cleansed and spiritually aligned and in tuned so they can be an effective, cleansed and open vessel to receive assistance from the spirit world, this would also apply to both physically present healing sessions or distant healing sessions. Conducing healing sessions requires one to be able to use various induction methods that are dependent on the personality of the client. I also learned how to go about lining with my client, and what professional office procedures to use for patient intake, follow up and develop a system of accurate record keeping.  Not only did I learn how to address the physical illnesses of the body, but also how to address spiritual issues, such as how to do soul retrievals, and perform spiritual baths, facials, etc that can aid in the spiritual and physical healing of a patient. 

I thought the course was through in its content and it is up to the student to study and practice the lessons in order to become an effective spiritual and metaphysical healer.  I would have like to receive more information on how to set up a office and healing practice.  I am thankful for this course and realize it is time for me to begin to use it as a practice.   Just recently I lost my job and am feeling a strong call to begin to do my spiritual work full time as a method of earning an income.  Thank you for the years of toll, strife, joy, success and spiritual growth that you have been given to be able to gift others with the knowledge to do the work of spirit. I am sending much light your way, for having made my path brighter, and for validating the work of spirit in my life.

             May the spirit of creation continue to bless you in all your endeavors to maintain this ancient traditional practice.

Rev. Dr. Edonna Alexandria

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The Universal Life Church is a comprehensive online seminary where we have classes in Christianity, Wicca, Paganism, two courses in Metaphysics and much more.

Ordination with the Universal Life Church, is free,  and lasts for life, so use the Free Online Ordination, button.We also offer many free wedding ceremonies for your use.

The  ULC, run by Rev. Long, has created a chaplaincy program to help train our ministers. We also have a huge catalog of Universal Life Church materials.  I've been ordained with the Universal Life Church for many years and it's Seminary since the beginning and have loved watching the continual growth of the seminary.

Try our new free toolbar at: ULC Toolbar

Try our new free toolbar at: ULC Toolbar

Spirituality

Spirituality Course

This was a challenging course that provoked much inner thought. It is near impossible to know what to pick for this discussion. Perhaps one of the most interesting lessons was that on different spiritual philosophies. Here we learn of stoicism that played an important role in defining much of Christianity. 

The stoics believed there was no higher God than reason, a direct challenge to Christianity so it was interesting to uncover why stoicism was such an important tenet for Christianity. Stoicism says that everything may be understood through reason, and the Christians equated reason with God, so all things can be understood through God. This is a very profound statement. In spiritual development, to achieve true growth we must seek reason, we must understand concepts and understand God. The stoical Christian tenet says effectively that true understanding comes through connecting with God. 

This leads to the crucial statement of the lesson "understanding what influences us makes us better ministers". This is certainly true. To be able to act as a minister for others we need a true understanding ourselves – an understanding that must act on all levels. How can we lead others when we are searching in the dark ourselves. This does not mean that one must achieve perfection to minister, but it does mean that we need to understand the means for working towards perfection. Here, stoicism progresses to give revelations – that God is energy (and therefore part of everything as with the divine spark I discussed in the paganism essay) and that the way to oneness with god is to accept this existence and therefore god, exactly as it is.

The next key point of the lesson is that the bible is not the only source of Christian ethics and it goes on to show the key philosophical thinkers who shaped Christianity such as Saint Augustine. This gave rise to many of the concepts that have been accepted as Christian truth, coming from God, when they were not. These include pre-destination, the idea that only the chosen may go to heaven, and it was this that powered the inquisition and the burning times. This lesson shows one of the key points of the whole course, that spiritualism involves questioning, that nothing should be taken on trust, and that with an inquiring mind we can come to true understanding.

Again, an excellent course and I thank the creator for the wisdom it contained.

Rev. Sue Bellworthy

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Ordination with the Universal Life Church, is free,  and lasts for life, so use the Free Online Ordination, button.

As a long time member of ULC, Rev. Long created the seminary site to help train our ministers. We also have a huge catalog of Universal Life Church materials.  I've been ordained with the Universal Life Church for many years and it's Seminary since the beginning and have loved watching the continual growth of the seminary.

Try our new free toolbar at: ULC Toolbar

Spirituality

Spiritualism

An interesting concept from this course was the discussion about not being able to learn anything if you already thought you knew about it. This ties in with the concept of each of us finding our own path to god. Believing that we alone have the secret formula, the one true way to reach god, divides us from all others, when we should instead be recognizing and celebrating the gift of our own unique experience of God’s creation.

Much horror has been perpetrated in the world in the name of God. Believing that we alone know the truth is a very dangerous idea. It is only in recognizing that we are all travelers on the road, searching for the way to whatever our own concept of God may be, that can we be freed of the human ego trip of being right and justified in our actions.

The second concept I found of interest was the one about scientists in their white lab coats. The white lab coat being a form of spiritual dress for the religion of science rang a bell within me. I find this idea to be very true.

Western civilization has embraced the notion of reality being only that which we can demonstrate, prove and repeat under controlled conditions. The problem inherent in this is that we have no way of actually verifying or observing anything other than through our own senses. And by their very nature our senses limit us. A dog can hear and smell things that we can not perceive because of the limitations of our physical senses. Does that mean that what the dog smells or hears does not exist, because we can not hear or smell it?

That is the type of logic on which scientific experiment is based. More and more we are finding that as we create more sensitive devices we are detecting things that science did not admit the existence of in the past. How much of what we believe will be proven false by the very science that created our beliefs to begin with? We have latched on to science as the new religion although few would look at it in that way.

The interesting thing is that now the science of quantum physics has brought science back to the idea of God. Science is now demonstrating that the hard fast rules we thought the universe was working by are not so hard and fast as we thought. Quantum physics is not yet a household word. But as more and more people are confronted with it, we will be forced as a society to acknowledge that the spiritual has a real place in our lives.

As a minister I struggle with finding my place in the world. My life has been rich because of the spiritual dimension that gifts me with a true appreciation of how wondrous the world is and what a blessing it is to be alive, even in its most painful moments. But my own experiences and beliefs do not put me in a position of being able to counsel others on how they should approach life. I try to be open and listen, to perhaps point out things I see from my perspective. But, the ministry does not confer the right to impose anything on those who seek our help. It is many times difficult to stand back and be gentle, when the impulse is to rush in with what is after all, only my own opinion, the fruit of my own experience.

The ministry is both an opportunity and a burden in many respects. The opportunity lies is seeing the ministry as a prod to always examine what it is that motivates us. It gives us frequent pushes in the direction of self growth. The burden lies in the fact that it is a way to feed the ego. It is only too easy to succumb to the belief that as ministers we are closer to God than others are. The final lesson in this course spoke to that in a very real way.

We are all only fellow travelers, one no better than the other, just on a different road, at a different point in the journey. The only clear thing I can see is that our society is in a spiritual crisis, longing to find some meaning in our existence. If there is any place that I believe we as ministers can truly be of help, it is in reaching out and affirming that there is no one right way of finding God. We must all struggle to find our connection, and only in respecting each man’s right to choose his own path can we support each other.

Rev. Cynthia Boelens

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The Universal Life Church is a comprehensive online seminary where we have classes in Christianity, Wicca, Paganism, two courses in Metaphysics and much more. I have been a proud member of the ULC for many years and the Seminary since its inception.

The Universal Life Church offers handfasting ceremonies, funeral ceremonies and free minister training.

As a long time member of ULC, Rev. Long created the seminary site to help train our ministers. We also have a huge selection of Universal Life Church  minister supplies. Since being ordained with the Universal Life Church for so many years and it's Seminary since the beginning, I've watch the huge change and growth that has continued to happen.

Try our new free toolbar at: ULC Toolbar

Metaphysical Healing

Metaphysical Healing

As with spirit quest – it is impossible to detail all I have learned in this excellent course. To deal with the aspects I found hardest to accept first. My main problem is with the shamanic approach to illness, the view that illness is self-created and that anything can be relieved by the power of thought. While I agree that mental attitude has a great effect on recovery from illness, I can’t accept that illness is self-caused in all cases. There are too many illnesses that just don’t seem to fit the pattern quite apart from accidents, birth abnormalities etc.

This aside, the other methods described in the course are definitely ones that I shall continue to use in the future. For example, I like the concept of past life regression as a tool for healing the present by unraveling complex behavior loops and to explain choices and preferences in the current incarnation. Equally valuable are the methods of energy healing including reiki, which have produced some excellent results in my hands. Combining energy healing with assessment of the aura and of the chakras greatly increases its power. As a rule I find it easier to sense the aura with my hands rather than see it with my eyes, and yet my hands can sense colour as well as areas of high and low energy and areas of damage. The aura is therefore very useful when I want to identify areas in greatest need of treatment, or identify the problem. The chakras as energy centres of the body have a major role in health, and aligning the chakras as part of a healing treatment greatly increases the success.

In my opinion, Teiki (and other energy healing) is a valuable method of healing but it should be noted that Reiki is not a magic cure and it cannot successfully treat every condition. To state otherwise is to mislead and to give false hope, and to promote Teiki as a cure-all for monetary gain is unconscionable. Despite this, Reiki may bring spiritual and mental relief to those with serious and incurable conditions (Rand, 1995). It can be argued that Dr Usui’s views that those who did not respond to Reiki were simply unwilling to accept the cure are far too simplistic. The majority of illnesses, though possibly exacerbated by stress and/or mental health, are caused by external factors beyond the control of the patient. Students of the chakras and the subtle bodies and of shamanism will interrupt here and point out that disease is often manifest in the higher bodies – the mental and etheric, before it becomes manifest in the physical form, and accordingly may be treated at this nascent stage. This is entirely possible, but appearance of disease in these higher bodies does not imply voluntary or even subconscious acquiescence to the illness. I do not subscribe to the view that illness and disability is a form of karmic payback, our Gods and Goddesses are not cruel, vengeful beings and have better ways of teaching us. Maybe there are some people who enjoy ill health for reasons of their own, but the majority will be only too eager to regain health. This unfortunately means that the many patients with life-threatening and incurable illnesses who want nothing more than to survive and will try any method of treatment offered are potentially vulnerable to charlatans.

The course offered a lot of very useful advice on setting up a healing practice. I do not intend to use the healing methods learned in this course in a practice setting, reserving them for personal use among family and friends, and for animals. Being trained in main line medicine, these techniques offer a valuable addition to the traditional methods of healing and using a combination of both has dramatic results. 

Rev. Sue Bellworthy

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The Universal Life Church is a comprehensive online seminary where we have classes in Christianity, Wicca, Paganism, two courses in Metaphysics, as well as courses in Mystical Christianity, Buddhism and Comparative Religion. I have been a proud member of the ULC for many years and the Seminary since its inception.